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Viruses: Essential Agents of Life pp 407–419Cite as

From Molecular Entities to Competent Agents: Viral Infection-Derived Consortia Act as Natural Genetic Engineers

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Abstract

Endogenous viruses and defectives, transposons, retrotransposons, long terminal repeats, non-long terminal repeats, long interspersed nuclear elements, short interspersed nuclear elements, group I introns, group II introns, phages and plasmids are currently investigated examples that use genomic DNA as their ­preferred live habitat. This means that DNA is not solely a genetic storage medium that serves as an evolutionary protocol, but it is also a species-specific ecological niche. A great variety of such mobile genetic elements have been identified during the last 40 years as obligate inhabitants of all genomes, either prokaryotic or eukaryotic. They infect, insert, delete, some cut and paste, others copy and paste and spread within the genome. They change host genetic identities either by insertion, recombination or the epigenetic (re)regulation of genetic content, and co-evolve with the host and interact in a module-like manner. In this respect they play vital roles in evolutionary and developmental processes. In contrast to accidental point ­mutations, integration at various preferred sites is not a randomly occurring process but is coherent with the genetic content of the host; otherwise, important protein coding regions would be damaged, causing disease or even lethal consequences for the host organism. In contrast to “elements”, “entities” and “systems”, biological agents are capable of identifying sequence-specific loci of genetic text. They are masters of the shared technique of coherently identifying and combining nucleotides according contextual needs. This natural genetic engineering competence is absent in ­inanimate nature, and therefore represents a core capability of life.

“To understand a sentence means to understand a language. To understand a language means to be master of a technique”(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

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  1. Telos – Philosophische Praxis, Vogelsangstraße 18c, 5111, Buermoos, Austria

    Günther Witzany

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    Günther Witzany

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Witzany, G. (2012). From Molecular Entities to Competent Agents: Viral Infection-Derived Consortia Act as Natural Genetic Engineers. In: Witzany, G. (eds) Viruses: Essential Agents of Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4899-6_20

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